1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an industrial fryer for cooking foods, which is provided with a plurality of oil vats.
2. Description of Related Art
Conventionally, fryers provided with a plurality of oil vats are known as industrial fryers. An example of a three-vat type fryer provided with three oil vats is shown in FIGS. 6 and 7. In this fryer 1, three fryer units 1a, 1b, and 1c are provided together in a row within a main casing. The fryer units 1a, 1b, and 1c are each provided with, for example, an oil vat 3 for containing cooking oil (hereinafter, simply xe2x80x9coilxe2x80x9d), two pulse burners 4 for heating the oil within the oil vat 3, a cooking controller 18, and a heating controller 19, and basically share the same configuration.
The control portion of the fryer 1 is made up of the cooking controller 18, which is for setting the cooking time and the temperature in accordance with the cooking program via a control panel, and the heating controller 19, which is for controlling the operation of the pulse burners 4 so that the temperature of the oil is maintained at the temperature designated by the cooking controller 18. The cooking controller 18 is provided at the top of the front side of the apparatus for easy control by the operator, and is positioned adjacent to the oil vat 3 due to the structure of the fryer 1. Therefore the cooking controller 18 is heated by the heat emitted from the oil vat 3. Accordingly, to prevent poor performance and a reduced lifetime due to overheating of the cooking controller 18, an insulting material was conventionally provided between the oil vat 3 and the cooking controller 18. Alternatively, the cooking controller 18 was cooled and insulated by the flow of air resulting from the force of the natural draft which was generated within the casing housing the cooking controller 18.
In the three-vat type fryer depicted in FIGS. 6 and 7, the cooking controller 18 of the fryer unit 1b in the middle receives both the heat emitted from the left and right side oil vats 3, but as for the fryer units 1a and 1c, it is not such a problem. Thus, there was the risk that overheating could not be sufficiently prevented with this conventional configuration.
It is an object of the fryer of the present invention to solve this problem, and to achieve increased operational reliability of the cooking controller and to extend its lifetime.
A fryer of the present invention for solving the above problem, is a multi-vat fryer in which at least three fryer units are provided in a row, each fryer unit being provided with an oil vat for containing cooking oil, a heating control means for controlling the heating of the cooking oil, and a cooking controller for carrying out settings such as temperature settings and a cooking program while sending a control signal to the heating control means,
wherein the cooking controller of each fryer unit includes a connection detecting means for detecting whether a cooling fan for preventing an electronic circuit board in the cooking controller from overheating is connected, and a driving means for driving the cooling fan;
and the cooling fan is provided only in the cooking controller of a specific fryer unit of the plurality of fryer units.
A feature of a fryer of the present invention is that in the fryer, three fryer units are provided in a row, and the cooling fan is provided only for the cooking controller of the middle fryer unit.
A feature of a fryer of the present invention is that in the fryer, the cooking controller is provided with a control display portion for controlling and displaying temperature settings and the cooking program, for example, and
the control display portion displays whether the cooling fan detected by the connection detecting means is connected.
With the fryer of the present invention having the above configuration, the heating control means heats cooking oil in the oil vat based on the cooking program and/or temperature setting set by the cooking controller. If a cooling fan is connected, the cooking controller detects the connection with the connection detecting means and drives it with the driving means. Thus, simply by connecting a cooling fan to a specific cooking controller to be prevented from overheating, the cooling fan is appropriately driven and cools and insulates against the heat emitted from the oil vats. Moreover, to switch between driving and not-driving the fan, it is unnecessary to perform troublesome settings and maintenance such as setting the status of the fan connection at each cooking controller or dividing the specifications for the cooking controllers to which the cooling fan is connected into xe2x80x9cfan-connected typexe2x80x9d and xe2x80x9cno-fan-connected typexe2x80x9d when manufacturing.
With the fryer of the present invention, three fryer units are provided in a row, and the cooking controller of the middle fryer unit is heated by the heat emitted from the oil vats of the left and right fryer units, but it is cooled and insulated by the cooling fan, and thus does not become particularly hot.
With the fryer of the present invention, the connection detecting means recognizes whether the cooling fan is connected, and this is displayed on the control display portion provided for the cooking controller.
With the fryer of the present invention, the cooling fan is controlled according to the temperature of the cooking controller, which is detected by the temperature sensor. This means that the cooling fan can be controlled so that it only operates when said detected temperature is above a specific value, although the temperature of the cooking controller may change due to the environment surrounding the fryer or how the fryer is used.